Shade The Changing Girl

Credits:Written by Cecil CastellucciIllustrated by Mirka AndolfoColored by Marissa LouiseLettered by Saida TemofonteEdited by Molly Mahan and Jamie S. RichDC’s Young Animal crossover captains are Gerard Way & Steve Orlando (haha)Shade The Changing Man created Steve DitkoWonder Woman created by William Moulton Marston

This review does not contain spoilers. If you’d like a more in-depth review please check out our full review here.

Credits:Written by Cecil CastellucciIllustrated by Mirka AndolfoColored by Marissa LouiseLettered by Saida TemofonteEdited by Molly Mahan and Jamie S. RichDC’s Young Animal crossover captains are Gerard Way & Steve Orlando (haha)Shade The Changing Man created Steve DitkoWonder Woman created by William Moulton Marston

Warning: This review contains spoilers! If you have not yet read this issue please check out our spoiler-free review!

It was announced on Dec 14th, 2017 through paste magazine that the core books from DC’s Young Animal will return but three will have redesigns and new names for the new year.

As Gerard put it while talking to paste:

Way summarized the reintroductions: “Young Animal is back to bringing the weird, with all your favorite characters going in drastically new directions not even they could expect. Find out what these characters are up to now, and how they’ve hit their next level of evolution. Catch up with Cave and Team Carson as they fly out of the earth and into outer space, follow Mother Panic while she discovers a Gotham City without Batman, and meet Shade’s new body! Plus the introduction of our newest character and title: Eternity Girl!”

The books will undergo name changes to go along with the redesign that will take place after the crossover event “Milk Wars” that’s slated to start in January. To get more details Paste spoke to the writers of Shade, Cave and Mother Panic. For the full interviews please check out their article by clicking here.

Shade The Changing Girl will now be known as Shade The Changing Woman. It will follow the life of Shade as she finds herself grown and unable to go back to who she was and must continue to learn and move forward as who she is. As Cecil Castellucci told paste:

It’s true that she does have her own body and identity now. She can’t go back to who she was, she must become who she is. That’s definitely a part of being in your early adult life. You go out there, you make a lot of boneheaded mistakes. You still haven’t mastered your wisdom. You put away your childish things and you change. I find it funny that you say that she’s found peace. I think of it more as she’s found a bigger understanding about self and about how you gotta live it or lose it. If you look at the end of the last series, there are a lot of crumbs that I left there to follow. I can say that I will be picking up that trail and following it to its conclusion. I hope you’ll be delighted and have a few Oh! and Aha! moments when you read the new arc.

Cave Carson has a Cybernetic Eye will become Cave Carson has an Interstellar Eye and will find Cave and Chloe facing new challenges as they go spelunking into a black hole. Here is some of what Jon Rivera told Paste about what we can expect:

In the last series, Cave discovered the “Reality Shards”, which could transport him to different time periods and realities on Earth, but it’s still Earth. This time around, Cave and Chloe are being accidentally thrust into the infinite possibilities of the cosmos. For an expert geologist like Cave, our universe is a playground. There’s a new sense of wonder in Cave’s heart, and it’s incredibly exciting to explore. It’s the open, untamed, nature of the cosmos which excites me. The sense of exploration has seeped into other facets of the book as well—we’re being much more experimental this time around.

Mother Panic’s new name will be “Mother Panic: Gotham A.D.” and will jump 10 years into a future that is unlike anything she is used to. In this future Gala will reign and Batman will have disappeared. Without her mother or any of the people that served as her support system, and helped shape her world view, Mother Panic must face her biggest challenge yet as she’s forced to adapt to a new world that has the deck stacked heavily against her. Will she give up? Will she take the easy way out and give into the darkness within her? Or will she continue her path of self discovery and become more like the caped crusader himself in his absence?

Here’s some of what writer, Jody Houser, had to say to paste magazine about the redesign:

The A.D. is more meant to evoke the feel of a different Gotham. The time and place that Mother Panic ends up in after the events of Milk Wars (the Young Animal crossover event that kicks off the second year of the books) isn’t the same Gotham that she left. So she has to deal with being in a strange version of the city she knew, with none of the resources she’s used to having. And yeah, she’s pretty pissed off about it.

To help add to that feel of a different Gotham, Mother Panic will be bringing in fresh art from Ibrahim Moustafa. We’re excited to see what Ibrahim brings to Mother Panic, and as she told paste, so is Jody Houser:

I love Ibrahim’s take on Mother Panic and the new Gotham… His art definitely has the stylized realism feel we were looking for in this arc, and it works well with the noir feel the book has had before. At the same time, his work feels like the start of a brand-new chapter to Violet’s story and a great introduction to this new flavor of Gotham City.

Shade, Cave and Mother Panic will return in March (after the cross over event that will run from January to February) along side a new 6 part mini-series titled, Eternity Girl.

On Wednesday 9/6/17 Gerard Way, Jody Houser, Jon Rivera and Cecil Castellucci joined Amy Dallen for Geek & Sundry’s The Wednesday Club where they discussed the imprint and went from book to book detailing just what it is and what we can expect to see coming in the future.

We did our best to live tweet the event. Here are some highlights.

Gerard just admitted there are more Young Animal writers to come but can't announce who just yet!

We’re stoked to announce that Gerard Way, Jody Houser, Cecil Castellucci & Jon Rivera will be joining Amy Dallen for this week’s edition of The Wednesday Club for Geek and Sundry! The twitch stream starts at 7pm pacific time (that’s 10pm for you east coasters like me).

Due to a strict No Photos rule we don’t have much in the way of photographs to show you. But fortunately our friend, Krista, was able to record the audio from the panel and snag a picture with the man himself, Gerard Way.

The Young Animal discussion is free and open to the public. Signing requires the purchase of one TPB of any Young Animal book.

Numbered tickets will be given out for the signing line.

Here is some further information about the signing from Skylight Books Website:

To get a ticket to the signing line, you must purchase at least one copy of Shade the Changing Girl, Vol 1., Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye, Vol 1., Doom Patrol, Vol. 1 or Mother Panic, Vol. 1. here at Skylight Books. Tickets will be available beginning Tues, July 25th.

Gerard Way will sign up to three items (books and/or memorabilia) and will personalize. (Limit doesn’t include other three authors’ backlist)

No pictures will be permitted during the event.

For all website orders for this event, be sure to leave a note in the Order Comments field that you would like a ticket and plan to attend the event.

Skylight’s Friends with Benefits members get priority signing line tickets (and 20% off this and all other event books each month), so be sure to mention your membership (or join) when you order the book.